Canada’s Kingsbury sets record with win
Mikael Kingsbury’s winning run is leaving him speechless.
The freestyle skiing star from Deux-Montagnes, Que., won his 12th straight World Cup moguls event and set a record with his 47th career victory.
Kingsbury’s win Wednesday night pushed him past Americans Hannah Kearney and Donna Weinbrecht for the record.
“I don’t know where to start anymore, it’s been a crazy ride,” said Kingsbury, who has won gold at every World Cup stop he’s competed in since a silver-medal performance in Calgary on Jan. 28, 2017. “I was having fun today. I felt very confident at the start gate and the fact that I’m beating Hannah Kearney and Donna for the number of wins all time, it’s just unbelievable. There’s no words. These ladies are legends in the sport and to have my name above them now, it’s a big honour for me.”
Kingsbury has already qualified for the Pyeongchang Games where next month he’ll go for one of the few pieces missing from his resume — an Olympic gold medal.
Fellow Canadian Alex Bilodeau won back-to-back Olympic gold, at the Sochi Games in 2014 and Vancouver in 2010 while Kingsbury won silver in Sochi.
On Wednesday, Kingsbury beat Japan’s Sho Endo and Bradley Wilson of the United States, whose third-place finish improves his chances of making the Olympic team. The 25-year-old Kingsbury was coming off a gold-medal run at a World Cup in Calgary just five days ago.
“I worked very hard to try to manage my energy this week and I was able to ski my best in the final and super final,” he said. “It seems like it’s been like that all the competitions this season where I’m able to be clutch at the right moment.”